Our 2013 smartphone guide has already covered the best hardware to buy and our favorite games for each platform. For the final edition, we'll be looking at a few cool tweaks and apps to help manage your smartphone and make it more useful. After all, smartphones are high-tech Swiss army knives. There are a million apps, functions, and settings, and it can all get a little overwhelming. But fear not—we at Ars spend most of our waking hours attached to our smart devices, and we've accumulated quite the pile of time-saving shortcuts and applications to make our lives easier. We want to share with you!

We've got all three major smartphone ecosystems covered in this guide, but don't just pay attention to the items for your platform of choice. While learning about neat things your phone can do is cool, it's interesting to see what's possible on the other side of the fence. And you just might want to switch some day.

Speed up animations (iOS and Android)

All the swoopy, sliding animations present in a modern smartphone OS are really nice the first three or 400 times you see them. The fact that current-generation smartphones are stuffed with fast SoCs means the effects at least look cool. Plus, many are communicative and often teach new users something about the layout of the OS or show them where something is going. For people who are familiar with the OS, though, animations often just slow them down or get in the way. Luckily, two out of our three platforms have a way to fix this. On iOS 7, just go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and flick the little switch to "on." One of the common criticisms of iOS 7 is that it has slower transitions than iOS 6, which makes the whole OS feel slow. "Reduce Motion" will make transitions feel slightly faster by disabling many of the zoomy animations.

Android has a much harder solution to get to, but it's much more comprehensive. First, you'll need to access the Developer Options, which means going to Settings > About Phone and mashing on "Build Number" seven times. This will unlock Developer Options in the main Settings page. Open it, scroll down a bit, and you should see three "Animation scale" settings: "Windows animation scale," "Transition animation scale," and "Animator duration scale." Open each one and crank it to ".5x," and suddenly you've kicked Android into turbo mode. This will affect all animations and transitions for the OS and apps, causing everything to operate at an almost reckless speed. I would really prefer something like ".75x," but the settings only come in "hyper" or "regular" speed. Some apps, like the home screen, will need to be restarted in order for the new animation speeds to apply. A reboot is the safest way to ensure it gets applied to everything. (For some real fun, try setting them to "10x," also known as "slow as molasses mode." It's interesting for about two minutes.)

Sadly, Windows Phone has no way to boost animation speed. That's a real shame, because Windows Phone is easily the biggest offender of way-too-slow animation speeds.

Manage contacts on a real computer

Managing contacts on a phone is always a nightmare. Even though each ecosystem tries its hardest to be friendly, it's still far too easy to wind up with duplicate or missing contacts—especially when you're using your phone for both home and work, and you've got multiple accounts syncing contacts to and from the device. Thankfully, all three platforms have ways to manage contacts from a real computer using a real keyboard.

Your best bet on Android and iOS is to use Google Contacts. Android, of course, natively syncs with Google Contacts. For iOS, just install the Gmail app, and it will ask if you'd like to sync contacts when you first set it up. Once you're syncing to Google, just head to google.com/contacts. There, you'll be able to easily add and edit contacts and organize everything into groups. While there is no app for Windows Phone, Microsoft's mobile OS can natively pull down contacts. Just set up a Gmail account and you're good to go.

Apple has an in-house contacts management solution on iCloud, but it lacks the power of Google Contacts. Google offers the ability to find and merge duplicates. It has many more import and export options and an amazing "restore contacts" function, which will revert your contacts to any point they were at in the last 30 days down to the minute. The UI is also much easier to use than iCloud, with multi-select checkboxes, a unified view/edit mode, and buttons in a single strip instead of like iCloud's crazy layout, which scatters buttons all over the screen.

Microsoft's contact site, live.com, lives in a utopian world of contact interoperability. It can import from just about anywhere you'd want to import contacts from. Most importantly, it will pull in contact pictures from Facebook and Twitter. The linked social media contacts are read-only, though—you can add details to a linked contact, but it's not a two-way sync. The interface is logically laid out, and it mostly has feature parity with Google Contacts (for example, you can search for possible duplicates and manually link contacts). The only thing it's missing over Google Contacts is the minute-by-minute backup and restore feature.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo

162 Reader Comments

My favorite tweak is so basic and fundamental I'm not sure how anyone lives without it... As a business oriented smart phone user who gets hundreds of emails per day in just my single business account, it is simply rude to have my phone notify me of every single arriving email. Extensive use of "Favorites" or "VIP"s and only using those for enabling a notification is a life-saver. It's also far kinder to those who share my cube-farm.

You forgot to mention Toast notifications for Windows Phone that will light up the screen and display a brief portion of the notification up top.

It's not as comprehensive as iOS or Android as it's still lacking a dedicated Notification Pane, but if one your annoyances on Android (something I wasn't actually aware of myself - I just assumed all phones lit up) is that the screen doesn't light up to tell you a quick little bit of what just happened, I'd say it's worth mentioning that Windows Phone does do at least that much with its Toasts.

There are a lot of cool and often forgotten options hidden away in the Accessibility settings in iOS. If you've never explored that page, give it a look; you might find something that surprises you. Two of my favourites:

1) Set the 'Accessibility Shortcut' (a.k.a. home button triple-click) to 'Invert Colours' for a quick and easy system-wide night mode toggle.2) Enable 'Assistive Touch' for a software home button that can be placed on any edge of the screen. This can really help owners of devices with broken physical buttons, and it also lets you create and save custom gestures for use anywhere else.

I purchased an LG G2. The LG team said this phone did not have an external SD card, but they touted their Cloud Storage.... "You get 50 GB for LIFE!!"

Beware, beware! With an external SD card, I could load roughly 25 GB of music and files in roughly 30 minutes. With the LG Cloud, it's taken three months and everything is STILL not loaded. I've complained to them and it was useless. If you have a small amount of stuff, then you'd probably not need the external storage anyway, so it wouldn't matter. However, if you have need for more than a trifle of storage, this might not be the best way to go.

For a more localized version of "Find my phone" the Moto X supports a "OK Google, Find my phone" voice command. If the phone can hear your voice, it will start making lots of noise so you can home in on it.

Nothing about custom launchers/homescreens in Android? Nova Launcher, ADW, MiHome (Springboard clone), and Go Launcher are all much better than any of the stock launchers that I know of. They allow things like resizable icon grids, forcing widgets into sizes they don't specifically support (but handle anyway), multiple docks, different themes, various shortcuts (swipe, etc.), and hiding apps in your drawer. While I don't normally buy many apps, Nova Launcher's pro version was the easiest choice I've made yet.

Not to be a bug, but this seems more like an Android plug than anything else, as the experience with iOS of WP8 seems quite limited. The feature of Kids corner is a godsend if you have a child that likes to play with your phone. If you look at Skydrive and its predecessor, LiveMesh, they have been around long before dropbox. So while this article may be how an expert android user uses a phone, I have iOS and WP users that would give a very different report.

While it's only Nokia Windows phones, Nokia Camera is a great app for taking photos and boasts a pretty wide array of settings. And includes a burst mode, then again I use a Lumia 1020 so take this information as you will.

I purchased an LG G2. The LG team said this phone did not have an external SD card, but they touted their Cloud Storage.... "You get 50 GB for LIFE!!"

Beware, beware! With an external SD card, I could load roughly 25 GB of music and files in roughly 30 minutes. With the LG Cloud, it's taken three months and everything is STILL not loaded. I've complained to them and it was useless. If you have a small amount of stuff, then you'd probably not need the external storage anyway, so it wouldn't matter. However, if you have need for more than a trifle of storage, this might not be the best way to go.

Take a look at Box, they also seem to have a 50GB promotion specifically for LG (and Sony) phones. I've since switched to Dropbox since they ran a similar promotion for Samsung phones, but Box worked really well for the time that I had used it.

1. I regularly use Spotlight to load those apps past the third homescreen. These are the apps that it's useful to have on the device, but that you I don't use everyday, i.e. a QR reader, Soundhound, etc.

You pull down from the top row of apps, type the first character or two of the app, and it appears for you to tap and load. Quick and easy. If you have so many apps that you can't remember the name (horror!) then type a , and a list of all apps on your iDevice appears. For clarity sake, I have my spotlight set for apps and for contacts only.

When I make a change from within Gmail, it shows up in the Contacts app on my iPhone. If you turn on iCloud, everything in the Contacts app will sync there too.

3. I turned off My Photo Stream in settings. It's just not a good product yet (for me, at least). I was given a lot of cloud disk space from MS, so I installed the SkyDrive app and set it to Camera Backup On, Resize Photos Off, and Use Mobile Network Off. Bonus, it integrates nicely with Windows 8.x

4. This may prove to be a bit controversial, but I've gone into Settings, iTunes & App Store, Automatic Downloads and turned Updates on and Use Cellular Data off. I'm rarely aware of the updating process now. I like it, but I know, YMMV.

What about location awareness apps on Android like Llama, Tasker and Locale? My phone turns my WiFi off when I'm not near my home, office, or girlfriend's place. When I get in my car it connects to the Stereo to play music, connect to my car's ECU (ala Torque) to display driving habits, unlocks my screen, and puts Torque as the foreground app.

Your Group Contacts tip using Gmail is a good one for iOS users, but will it work for group SMS messages, or just Gmail?

To setup groups for SMS messaging on the iPhone you have to use iCloud from a PC browser, you can't manage, create or delete the groups from the phone. Or just select them one by one in the messaging app. It's a pretty serious limitation.

What about location awareness apps on Android like Llama, Tasker and Locale? My phone turns my WiFi off when I'm not near my home, office, or girlfriend's place. When I get in my car it connects to the Stereo to play music, connect to my car's ECU (ala Torque) to display driving habits, unlocks my screen, and puts Torque as the foreground app.

Android's XPrivacy is good for those who don't like some of the permissions some of their apps request. It's a bit clunky, but it does the job.

Xposed is also pretty good for a bunch of advanced tweaks. For example, hold Power+VolumeUp from the off state to enable the flashlight for 30 seconds, even if the phone is locked with a security code.

Shouldn't there be two measures of signal strength on LTE phones? At least on Verizon, LTE does not carry voice. I'm usually more interested in the signal strength for the CDMA signal as I actually use my phone to ... talk *gasp!*

So...to all those that use Tasker...I'd love to hear how you've used it, and any guides you used for setting it up. I bought it off the play store, but I wouldn't exactly call it terribly intuitive. When I tried to set up a location based GPS toggle, the steps required were pretty insanely long.

How did you get through the "Manage Contacts..." section without mentioning the *awesome* MyPhoneExplorer? This fantastic and free software is practically an alternate interface for your Android phone.

Not only can it synchronize and manage contacts completely, it can do the same with your call history, SMS (you can synchronize your text messages for backup, send messages from your computer via the phone, even do an IM-style chat session on your computer using SMS), calendar, and it also provides facilities for managing a to-do list and quick notes (think Palm desktop style). You can also browse and transfer arbitrary files, view diagnostic and battery information ... and a shitload of other cool and useful things I'm forgetting right now.

And none of it goes through some bullshit cloud service where MS, Google, Apple or the NSA can get their grubby hands on all your stuff. It will do all this via USB, local wifi, or Bluetooth. Your choice.

On my Android, I use the free app "Phone Schedule" to set up some of the settings for my phone, according to time and date.

Monday-Friday 9am-6pm : I'm at work, so i want silent notifications, low volume ringtone (i get very few calls, so it must be important if i get one)Monday-Friday 6pm-midnight : I'm out of work, so i want loud notifications, loud ringtone, so that i can hear them if i don't have my phone on meMonday-Friday midnight-7am : silent notifications, loud ringtone so that even near my bed my phone will not bother me, except for emergencies.

And then i have more advanced schedule for other stuff, and different schedules for the weekend. With that, I never have to change my ringtones/notifications settings, they are exactly how they should be most of the time.And that's only a small part of what the app can do, it can also set brightness, synch, wifi, etc.

I use an Ipod Touch 5 on the iOS side, and what drove me crazy was all of the photos you take get put into that single folder "Camera Roll" (also for IpT4). THere was NO way to change this! All screenshots (using the Home + Power buttons simultaneously) also get saved into the same directory with no way to modify this! Just frustrating! I actually ended up using Documents To Go to sort my images into folders. This Camera+ app sounds nice, although it may only be for ios7 + Iph5s. Also, with this app installed, I'm sure you lose the convenience of being able to activate the camera app from the lock screen (as the current one maps to the default one that came with the phone, and I doubt there's any way to change that.) .

I use an Ipod Touch 5 on the iOS side, and what drove me crazy was all of the photos you take get put into that single folder "Camera Roll" (also for IpT4). THere was NO way to change this! All screenshots (using the Home + Power buttons simultaneously) also get saved into the same directory with no way to modify this!

That's the way it's designed.

Quote:

This Camera+ app sounds nice, although it may only be for ios7 + Iph5s.

Go to the app link Ron posted and it will tell you what OS version is needed.

Sometimes Dropbox isn't enough and you need to access something on your computer that isn't in the cloud. The best way to go about that is with a remote desktop app

I have to disagree. If all you want is to "access something on your computer that isn't in the cloud", a remote desktop client is the equivalent of getting a forklift to change a ceiling light. At least on Android there are a number of file managers that can easily access network shares, so I'd say the "best way to go about that" is put your (non-cloud-synced) files in a shared folder and access them anywhere within your LAN.

Incidentally, the same app I use for this (ES File Explorer) can also access a number of cloud services, including Google Drive, Dropbox and Skydrive, as if you were dealing with local files. First-party apps are more flexible, in that they let you select files to sync locally, but for merely accessing network shares or cloud services, these file explorers are enough.

As a WP user I can certainly appreciate the customization options Android has (and am a bit jealous). It's ironic too coming from the company responsible for the OS with the ability to customize just about anything that their phone platform is so locked down. I get the Apple obsession but I wonder how many Windows enthusiasts MS lost when they decided to lock down WP so much.

As a WP user I can certainly appreciate the customization options Android has (and am a bit jealous). It's ironic too coming from the company responsible for the OS with the ability to customize just about anything that their phone platform is so locked down. I get the Apple obsession but I wonder how many Windows enthusiasts MS lost when they decided to lock down WP so much.

Those Windows enthusiasts could've stayed on the perfectly customizable Windows Mobile, but they didn't. They all flocked to locked down iPhones, so apparently customizability wasn't high on their list of priorities.

As a WP user I can certainly appreciate the customization options Android has (and am a bit jealous). It's ironic too coming from the company responsible for the OS with the ability to customize just about anything that their phone platform is so locked down. I get the Apple obsession but I wonder how many Windows enthusiasts MS lost when they decided to lock down WP so much.

And not just the phone platform, but all of Windows RT and Windows 8.x 'Metro'.

I think these efforts are Microsoft's gut-check response to the excesses of the last 30 years of personal computing. Really, Windows Phone is the anti-Windows Mobile, as Metro is the anti-Windows Desktop. They seem to be drawing a line in the sand and saying "no more".

It's hard to blame them. Microsoft must spend an unimaginable amount of time, money and resources mitigating against malware threats in Windows. The sandboxed nature of the "new" Windows is confusing to a lot of PC enthusiasts to be sure, but I give them credit for not caving.

Microsoft's focus on keeping the Windows Phone user experience streamlined and accessible for "mainstream" users has led to an elimination of "non-essential" features like many discussed here. Sadly, this renders the platform less interesting to power users who recommend devices to their friends and family. Windows Phone would be perfect for many non-techie users who don't really want to spend time fiddling with their devices or chasing after the latest trendy apps, but most people don't consider it because they've been told it's not "as good" as Android or iOS. And for a "power user" or a Google enthusiast, this is probably true, but I think it would appeal to many users if given a chance to experience it for a time.

SkyDrive here is made to sound like some inferior knockoff to Dropbox. That's so far from the truth. SkyDrive actually makes cloud storage a joy, especially on Windows. Plus, DropBox doesn't have Office Web Apps.

Also, the 3rd party DropBox clients on Windows Phone are just fine. If you want built-into-phone though, MS is the way to go.

Shush! is a nice little android app. Whenever you put your phone on silent (or vibration) mode, it displays a popup asking you to set a timer to restore the volume. I always forget to restore it manually, so it's a lifesaver for me!

As a WP user I can certainly appreciate the customization options Android has (and am a bit jealous). It's ironic too coming from the company responsible for the OS with the ability to customize just about anything that their phone platform is so locked down. I get the Apple obsession but I wonder how many Windows enthusiasts MS lost when they decided to lock down WP so much.

Those Windows enthusiasts could've stayed on the perfectly customizable Windows Mobile, but they didn't. They all flocked to locked down iPhones, so apparently customizability wasn't high on their list of priorities.

I was a Windows Mobile enthusiast, loading custom ROMs and tweaking the registry and this and that. When I moved to Windows Phone I said "Why the hell was I doing all that work?" My priorities changed completely. My phone and my PC are no longer constant projects; I'm older and busier now.